


If you love someone, Set them free

by littlemissaddict



Series: Tumblr Requests [11]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-18 07:42:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28614552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlemissaddict/pseuds/littlemissaddict
Summary: Julie and Luke have a bad break up which causes Luke to quit the band and cut off all contact with her and the guys but later they reconnect. Can they rekindle what they had or is all lost.
Relationships: Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Series: Tumblr Requests [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2044609
Comments: 2
Kudos: 36





	If you love someone, Set them free

_ If you love something, let it go. If it returns, it's yours; if it doesn't, it wasn't. If you love someone, set them free. If they come back they're yours; if they don't they never were. _

Reggie had been in a weird mood lately. He wasn’t sure if it was because he’d spent the week at home and not the Molina’s where he’d practically been living for the last couple of months. When Ray had found out about the problems he was having at home he had offered to let him stay at their place for a couple of days but a couple of days turned into a month and a month turned into a couple. Ray treated Reggie like part of the family and he always got along with Julie and he was like a big brother to Carlos, it just seemed to work. Reggie thinks that's why he had gone and let slip to Ray when he found out that Julie and Luke were secretly dating. He hadn’t meant to eavesdrop on them, he was early for band practice and was going to wait in the studio when he heard the two of them talking.

“Luke we can’t keep doing this, we’re going to get caught” he heard Julie say, her voice was muffled.

“I know but you’re dad has made himself very clear that when we started this band none of us were to date you” Luke replied.

“Yes but that was before he got to know you all, I mean look at Reggie, dad has practically adopted him” Julie pointed out and Luke let out a small sigh

“Reggie’s not the one dating his daughter though is he” he said and there was silence after that so Reggie had decided that it was time to go in.

“Hey guys” he said cheerily as he walked through the door pretending that he hadn’t just been listening from the other side of the door.

\---

“Hey Julie, can we talk?” Ray asked, popping his head round Julie’s bedroom door, it had been a couple of days since Reggie had told him about what he had overheard in the studio.

“Sure dad, what’s up?” Julie asks, looking up from her homework and he comes into the room, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

“I know about you and Luke,” he says looking at her, watching the smile fall from her face, he takes this and her silence as confirmation that Reggie was right. “Julie you know the deal we had when I agreed to let you join the band, you promised me that this wouldn’t happen” he sighs

“But that was before you got to know the boys, you know Luke and you know he would never do anything to hurt me. Please just trust me with this” Julie pleads, tears filling her eyes but Ray shakes his head.

“No Julie, I’m sorry but this thing with Luke you need to end it or I pull the plug on the band” he says, standing up and walking out, leaving Julie to decide what she was going to do.

When Ray left Julie let the tears fall, what was she going to do. They had put too much hard work and effort into the band to get it to where it was now plus it wasn't just her it would affect if they had to end it, it would be Alex and Reggie as well who had done nothing to deserve this. But how could she sacrifice what she had found with Luke. 

It had taken her all night but she had finally decided what she was going to do but then it had taken her even longer to finally pluck up the courage to message Luke to go through with it.

**_Can we talk?_ **

Her heart raced as she sent the message but she didn’t have to wait long for Luke to read it and before she knew it his face was popping up on her screen.

“Hey Julie, what’s up?” he smiled at her but then faltered slightly as he took in her red puffy eyes and tear stained cheeks “Baby, what’s wrong?” he asks with concern clear in his voice and on his face. Julie still hadn’t spoken, her chest felt tight and she wasn’t sure she could speak without fresh tears escaping.

“I-I can’t do this anymore” she finally says, her voice quiet.

“Can’t do what anymore?” he asks softly, his brows furrowed as confusion filled him.

“This.Us.” she replies, voice cracking as a fresh wave of tears threatened to spill.

“What? Why? Did I do something?” He questions, he eyes water and he’s pulled his bottom lip in between his teeth as he waits for her to answer. Julie can tell that he’s holding back tears himself which makes it harder for her to do this.

“No but dad found out about us” she says with a shake of her head, a tear slipping free from her eyes which she wipes away quickly as she remembers her earlier conversation with her dad.

“Please Julie don’t do this. We-we can work something out, I’ll come over and talk to him but please baby don’t do this” he pleads, tears now falling freely but she shakes her head.

“I’m sorry Luke” she whispers, ending the call before she breaks down, throwing her phone down onto the bed as she curls up into a ball, tears wetting the duvet as she buries her face in it to quieten her sobs, the image of Luke face in her mind until she falls asleep.

\---

“Okay what’s going on why did Luke message me to tell me he’d quit the band?” Alex asks as soon as he walks through the garage doors into the studio where he found Julie and Reggie waiting.

“Wait what-what do you mean he’s quit?” Julie asks quietly, eyes filling up with tears, she was still upset from their conversation last night and this was the last thing she had wanted, she thought if she broke up with Luke then she could still have both the band and him in her life and then their hard work wouldn’t be wasted.

“No idea just a message this morning asking me to let you both know that he’s done, he’s finished with the band” Alex explains “Either of you know what could have lead to this” he asks as Reggie shakes his head at the same time as Julie nods, causing both of the boys to stare at her.

“Me and Luke were dating” she starts and hears Alex mumble something that sounds like ‘thought so’ which earns him a glare from Julie before she carries on “My dad found out somehow and he made me break up with him if I wanted to carry on with the band.” a tear falls from her eyes as she speaks. Reggie gasps suddenly drawing the attention of the other two, his face pale as he realises what he had done.

“This is all my fault, Julie I am so sorry. I heard you and Luke in here last week and I may have accidentally told your dad” Reggie admits, his voice quiet and his gaze never leaving the floor in front of him. 

“Reggie, how could you” Julie cries the tears falling again and Alex moves forward to pull her into a hug “I’ve lost everything, first Luke now the band” she says her voice muffled as her face is pressed against the front of Alex’s hoodie as he tries his best to calm her down. Reggie leaves not long after not wanting to stay and Alex stays for the afternoon, comforting her as best he could until he had to go home. She goes up to her room then and messages Luke to let him know what had happened because he deserves to know, she wishes he was here with her now but that wasn’t going to happen. When she checked her phone again she saw that Luke had read the message but not replied which had upset her even though she knew that there was nothing else to say.

\---

Two years later and Julie had finished school, she had moved away for college and was ready for a fresh start. The past couple of years have been tough. Since her break up with Luke he had cut off all contact with her, Alex and Reggie. They had decided that it was best if they didn’t carry on with the band as they didn’t want to replace Luke, not that anyone could replace him anyway. Her relationship with her dad was not what it used to be and although Reggie still spent a lot of time at her house Julie had made it a point to avoid him when he was there, opting to spend her time in her room or at Flynn’s. Flynn was one of the only friends that she still spoke to except Alex who she was still close to despite not seeing each other a lot, but she was hopeful that she would make more friends when classes started.

That was until she walked into her first music class and there he sat looking just as she remembered him until she caught a glimpse of his face. He looked older, granted two years had passed but Julie didn’t feel as if she’d changed that much, his features were sharper, his hair longer and her eyes lingered on the stubble that littered his jaw. She pulled her eyes away from him, dropping her gaze before she was caught staring and silently made her way over to a desk taking a seat on the opposite side of the room so that she wasn’t tempted by him. He doesn’t want to talk to you, she reminded herself as she pulled out her notebook and tried to distract herself until the class began but making a mental note to talk to Flynn later about it. The first week went by quickly and Julie was finding herself falling into the swing of the classes quite easily, the only class she’d had a problem with was music as that was the one Luke was in and more often than not she had found her attention drifting to him rather than what the teacher. It also meant she missed the announcement of the first solo project that they were been given until she was handed a piece of paper with a list of songs on it, that she realised that they had to pick one to perform the following week, she scanned the list quickly but with nothing jumping out at her she decided to leave it until she got back to her dorm when she could go through the songs properly.

Later that evening when she had finished work for one of her other classes she felt her mind wander to the list of songs that she had been given and she reached into her bag pulling it out. She let her eyes scan the page reading each song carefully until she was left with a few that she thought were possibilities. She grabbed her headphones and opened up youtube, she searched each song listening to them carefully but it wasn’t until she had come to the last one that she had decided what she was going to sing. She spent her free time for the next week practicing the song, making sure it was perfect, ready for the performance. When the day finally arrived Julie was nervous, she knew her song choice was risky but it was a chance she had to take, the lyrics felt personal and she was hoping that with the song she could finally apologise properly to Luke. She knew there was no chance of them getting back together but she missed him and she wanted her friend back so she was willing to take the risk.

Julie got to class early on the day of the performance, it wasn’t intentional she had just gotten ready earlier than usual, trying to keep herself busy so that she didn’t think of what was to come but she also wanted to check with the teacher whether or not she was still ok to use the piano as they had been encouraged to use instruments in their performances. She noticed Luke as soon as he walked into the room, his guitar in hand and Julie felt herself smile remembering how much she used to love hearing him play. When it came to her turn Julie settled herself on the piano bench, letting her fingers rest on the keys before she took a deep breath and started to sing, pouring all the emotion she could into the song. When she came to the end of the song she let her eyes wander around the room finding Luke, his eyes already locked onto her and she kept her eyes on him as she sang the last verse to him.

“In case you hear this then know you’re the love of my life, want to tell you I’m sorry I miss having you by my side, when you were mine” she sang hoping that he could tell how much she meant it as she finished by singing the chorus one last time. She took her seat again and watched the last performances, hoping to get a chance to speak to Luke when the class ended but that chance never came and in the weeks that followed she still didn’t get to speak to him. 

It was a few weeks later, towards the end of class when their teacher announced that she was putting them into partners for the next project and Julie dared to hope that she would get put with Luke as it meant she would have an excuse to talk to him. It seemed the universe was on her side as she heard her name called followed by Luke’s and she chanced a glance at him to find he was already looking at her, the look on his face was unreadable and Julie wondered if he was going to ask to switch partners but he stayed quiet. When she had finished calling out the list of names she let them know that these would be their partners for the remainder of the year and with that she dismissed them. Julie collects her belongings and goes to leave but she finds her path blocked, looking up she finds herself face to face with Luke.

“Hey” he says, a hesitant smile on his face.

“Hey” Julie responds just as hesitantly but she can’t stop the feeling of happiness that washes over her at the mere act of just talking to him again.

“So were partners” he states and Julie nods, her eyes not quite meeting his as speaks again “I was thinking, if you’ve got some free time tomorrow we could meet up and may be make a start on this, get it over and done with” he says, his hand coming up to rub the back of his neck and that's when Julie realises that he’s nervous, the hand thing she remembered him doing from when they were together.

“Yeah um I’ve got a free period at one tomorrow, we could meet and get lunch beforehand” she suggests pushing her luck by mentioning lunch.

“Cool, I’ll uh I’ll message you” Luke says and with that he’s gone leaving Julie wondering what the hell had just happened. Glancing at the clock Julie realised she was running late, she was meant to be meeting Flynn for lunch, she hoisted her bag over her shoulder and quickly made her out of the classroom.

“There you are, what took you so long?” Flynn exclaimed when she spotted Julie hurrying towards her “and what’s with that smile, you’re practically glowing” Flynn teases knowing what class she had come from and what certain someone was in that class with her.

“We’ve been given our project partners” she says and Flynn gives her a knowing look,

“Let me guess you’re with Luke”

Julie nods, “We’re meeting tomorrow to start working on the project but I asked him to get lunch with me beforehand and he agreed” Julie says excitedly as she follows Flynn into the cafeteria.

\---

Later on that evening Julie’s phone buzzed and she looked down to see a message from Luke and she felt a flutter in her chest, it had been that long since he’d messaged her that it made her giddy. Before she’d even got a chance to read the message her phone buzzed again with another message from Luke and she worried that he was cancelling their study plans.

_ Hi Julie, it’s Luke I hope I still have the right number for you but I was thinking that we could go to the little café just off campus for lunch tomorrow. _

_ That’s if you still want to. _

Relief flooded Julie as she read his messages and she couldn’t help the smile that stretched across her face as she typed out her reply.

The next day Julie is waiting nervously outside the door to Luke’s last class before lunch, her hands are fidgeting by her sides as she waits, feeling like she did on the first date that her and Luke ever went on. She stops herself there, not wanting to go any further with that train of thought as she doesn’t want old feelings resurfacing that would ruin her chance of reconnecting with Luke. The sound of a door opening startles her and she remembers where she is, pulling herself together as she watches for Luke, smiling as he greets her with a wave. They walk in a comfortable silence on the way to the lunch, every now and then Luke will point something out to Julie or he’ll say something that makes her laugh which makes her realise just how much she has missed having him in her life but the thing that gets to her most is that while they’re walking their hands keep brushing together between them and Julie has to fight the urge not to just reach out for his hand as she doesn’t know how he’ll react.

“So how’ve you been since, you know” he asks once they’re sat waiting for their food, his voice trails off towards the end as if he’s unsure of whether he wants to know the answer or not. Julie’s smile fall from her face at his question and he back tracks quickly “It’s okay you don’t have to tell me, I shouldn’t have asked”

Julie shakes her head, “No it’s fine, I probably should’ve expected it” she sighs “It’s just been tough, you know” she says and Luke nods, he does know, those first couple of weeks without Julie and the boys had been tough to say the least as he’d been friends with them forever and to just cut off all contact was hard for him but he felt it was necessary if he was to move on.

“That morning in the studio when Alex came in and told us you had quit, I just broke down like the whole reason I broke up with you was just so that we could continue with the band because we had put so much effort into it to get it to where it was, I just didn’t want all that to go to waste,” Julie confesses and Luke stays quiet not sure what to say “and then Reggie told us what he had done and that was it, the final straw, I was completely broken. I mean I still haven’t talked to him since then and I feel kinda guilty because he’s not a bad person, I mean he does some stupid things at times but he would never intentionally try to hurt someone” Julie finishes, realising she had never admitted that out loud before but it was true, she missed Reggie just as much as she’d missed Luke but for completely different reasons.

“But you didn’t carry on with the band” Luke says finally and Julie is surprised that it’s all he has to say after what she had confessed, she thought he’d be upset that she chose the band over him but his face is unreadable and Julie’s not sure what to say.

“No, too much bad blood I guess after everything that happened,” she shrugs, “plus it’s not like we could have found anyone to replace you, no one would have compared to you” she says, panicking slightly after she’d said it. She looks at Luke trying to gauge his reaction, he’s biting his lip and it looks like he’s trying to suppress a smile and before they know it they’re both laughing.

“Okay that was cheesy, like straight out of one of those stupid rom-com movies that Alex used to make us watch” he says between laughs, laughs that earn them a disapproving look from the waitress as she brings their food over and they try to quieten down but as soon as she’s gone they can’t help laughing again. Their conversation lessens as they eat but Julie still wants to know what Luke did after he cut off all contact with her and the boys, he’s reluctant to tell her at first but he never could say no to Julie back when they were together and it seems that he still can’t now.

“I’m not going to lie mom was really happy when I quit, she’d never liked that it was what I wanted to do but I think she soon realised just how much it meant to me and how much it motivated me I guess. You know she even tried to talk me into joining the band again” he explains and Julie nods, she’d known Luke a long time so for his mom to actually want him to joint the band again because it made him happy he must have been pretty sad and it hurts her to know she was the cause of the sadness.

“Luke I’m really sorry for everything” Julie says, a sad smile on her face and Luke starts to reply but he’s interrupted by the waitress clearing their plates but he’s quick to speak up again after she leaves.

“No, one life no regrets remember,” Luke jokes making Julie giggle “seriously though I think it was good that we talked, call it closure if you will but maybe now we’ve cleared the air we could work on becoming friends again” he says but it comes out more like a question.

“That would be nice but you’ve got to do one thing for me” Julie says and Luke quirks his eyebrow at her in question “talk to Alex, he doesn't show it but he really misses you” she frowns and he nods, that he could do because he missed Alex too. They end up staying in the café talking, completely forgetting that they were supposed to be working on the project for music until Julie notices the time and realises that she’s going to be late for her next class. Luke offers to walk her to her next class and Julie lets him because she’s not ready to stop talking just yet as they still have a lot to catch up on, two years is a long time after all but they also need to work out a time for them to actually start their project because she really doesn’t want to turn it in late and risk having them split up if the teacher feels like they can’t work together. Julie gets to her next class on time and leaves Luke with an awkward goodbye and the promise that she will message him later.

By the time the weekend rolls around Julie’s glad that she doesn’t have to wake up early for class because her and Luke stayed up late last night talking and going over their plans for the weekend as they had decided to spend the weekend working on the project to get it out of the way so that they had more time to hang out together. When she wakes it late morning and she hurries to get ready as Luke said he was going to come over around lunch time as his roommate was having friends over and he couldn’t stand his roommate at the best of times and apparently his friends were worse. Luke was also shocked to learn that Julie had been lucky to get a room to herself and he had complained about it a lot to the point where it was starting to get on her nerves

A knock on the door grabs her attention and she opens it to find Luke with a big smile on his face and a bag of food in his hand, “Can’t work on an empty stomach now can we” he jokes as Julie lets him into her room and he begins to unpack the food. Julie is slightly shocked by how much food he’s brought but she tucks into the food anyway as they chat about their classes. It’s about an hour later when they finally start to work on the project which Luke is a bit reluctant about at first until Julie reminds him the quicker they start it the quicker they will be done with it which motivates him to get to work.

It’s late and Julie’s tired as they’ve spent all day working and somehow managed to finish most of the project for music but she’s happy just to relax with Luke. They had put on a movie after they had gotten dinner and somehow Julie had ended up cuddled into Luke’s side with her head resting on his chest and his arm around her. She can feel her eyes getting heavier and she is sure she is going to fall asleep sometime soon until Luke’s voice catches her attention.

“You know how I said that maybe we could work at being friends again, I think I’ve changed my mind” he says and suddenly Julie’s not tired anymore instead she’s worried, worried that she’s done something wrong and this is all her fault. She pulls away from him and looks at him with wide eyes as she tries to decipher the look on his face as if it will give her some clue to what he’s thinking.

“I thought I had moved on from what we had and that we could be friends but the truth is I haven’t. I still love you Julie and I can’t spend all this time with you pretending that I don’t. I just can’t take it anymore” he adds, watching her carefully hoping that she’ll give him some sign that she feels the same.

“It’s okay I understand I shouldn’t have expected us to go back to how we were before but you don’t have to stick around if you don’t want to” Julie replies, an overwhelming sadness filling her up as tears threaten to fall from her eyes which Luke must notice because he sits up pulling her close to him and holding her tight as he talks.

“That’s not what I meant, I want to try us again. I want to hug you, kiss you, hold you close and tell you how much I love you just like before. I want everyone to know that you’re mine and I am yours, no secrets this time.” he declares and Julie can’t believe what she’s hearing. She looks up at him, speechless but he takes that silence as rejection “It's okay if you don’t want to. I can pretend that this never happened and we can just be friends” he says sadly.

“But what if I can’t pretend,” Julie says, finally finding her voice again and shocking Luke “What if I can’t pretend to be just friends after hearing that you feel the same as I do” she reveals watching as a smile finds its way onto Luke’s face.

“So no more hiding” he asks, reaching for her hand and intertwining their fingers.

“No more hiding” she confirms.


End file.
